41 entrepreneurs and small business owners attended the February 13 Maui TechOhana organized by the Maui Economic Development Board and supported by the County of Maui. A further six joined via the livestream to listen to Google Software Architect Stefan Kuhne talk about lessons learned along his 40 year journey through tech.
From his early days of electronics and circuit boards to becoming one of the world’s graphic experts, followed by 18 years at Google where he worked on Google Earth and Chrome OS projects – Kuhne had some interesting stories to tell, and tips to pass along to the engaged audience.
“To be successful you need to be passionate about it, said Kuhne, who grew up in Germany and is now based in Maui “During the 70’s/80’s when I was still in school computers were new and cool so I was motivated to get my own computer and create chips.”
Kuhne went on to share his journey and inspirations and how he went on to create a number of computer games including Moon Cargo, The Lost Pharaoh, WinBrick (96, 2000 and 3D).
One of the key take-aways from the presentation was to look for market disruptions. “The earlier you spot the discruption, the less you have to invest to ride the updraft,” said Kuhne.
Stefan Kuhne, Software Architect, Google, Inc.
Kuhne has given keynote presentations on events with more than 10,000 viewers, presented at big events like Google I/O, and has pioneered, invented and created many worldwide firsts – including creating for fun his own company as entrepreneur selling over 200,000 self-written computer games. Maui-based Kuhne is also the holder of about 20 patents, many of them worldwide.
Attendees at Maui TechOhana had the opportunity to network before and after the presentation with light rereshments served.